Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Quinton asked if I would paint him a platoon of the new Perry Miniatures AfrikaKorps I was 'between boxes' on the vast quantity of Desert Rats that I need to get painted in time for Salute, so it only took a little arm twisting.

I then paint any goggles with Sky Blue and then a dot a white.
The armbands have two this bands of White and then two thin bands of Flat Red.
The cap badges are picked out in Black and White
White piping is added to the shoulder boards.

The detail is then picked out in Windsor & Newton Peat Brown ink.

Sorry the images are so shonky, due to poor light this time of year I shot them in the garden between breaks in the rain!

Monday, 30 December 2013

On Saturday we had our clubs Christmas gaming day. It was a great opportunity for James Morris to try out the I Ain't Been Shot Mum rules and terrain for the game we will be taking around the shows this year, the first outing will be at Salute in April where we will unveil the full thing.

The Empire forces mass in the valley below Sanchil & Brig's Peak

Without any further ado, on to our game which was:

The Attack on Sanchil & Brig’s Peak by the 1st/3rd Punjabis

This attack took place on the evening of 10th February 1941

A section prepares for action

The slope of Brig's Peak and Sanchil was defended by Eritrean Askaris from 97th Colonial Battalion supported by a light mountain gun while two companies from the 3rd Battalion 1st Punjabi Regiment would attack up the slopes. The Italians would be reinforced by troops from the 3rd Battalion Bersaglieri as the game progressed.

Starting the climb

I have uploaded the Orders of Battle here James put together a brilliant scenario that really played out well.

We played without blinds, the Italian troops were hidden, but their 'platoon' and 'big man' cards were placed in the deck and they could be revealed when their card came up, this prevented the issue often seen in asymmetrical games of I Ain't Been Shot Mum when one side has nearly every card in the deck and the other ones blind turns up as frequently as the Tea Break card.

The British forward observer lives a charmed life despite Italian shelling and mortar fire

All movement was at a -2 modifier to represent the difficult terrain of the mountain side, all shots down the hill would be Ok shots where all shots up the hill would be Poor shots.

Up and at 'em lads!

James would play the Italians and I had the Indians, to be assisted by Steve when he arrived around lunch-time.

The mountain gun crew come under increasing pressure - the flag seems a tempting target for the Brits!

The initial 'Stonk' was quite devastating on the Askaris and they were carrying a lot of shock markers when the Indians had spotted them, in the ensuing fire-fights and bayonet-work they were soon dislodged.

Going in with grenades at the ready

The game turned into a race between the British to get to the top. In the centre, Lieutenant Gibbs led one of the platoons about half way up the slope successfully dislodging a platoon of Askaris but taking heavy casualties in the process and also causing the Italians to abandon their mountain gun. On the left flank Sergeant Shaw had led one platoon to almost the top of the peak, easily brushing aside a platoon of Askaris, but his supporting platoon was making poor headway against the steep slope of Brig's Peak so leaving the platoon he scrambled back down the slope to try to lead the supporting platoon up a better path.

Tough work, this climbing business

Italian mortar fire opened up and managed to knock out one of the 2" mortars supporting the Indian attack, but caused very little other damage, the Indian 3" mortars were similarly ineffective.

Lt Gibbs rallies his forces, having just survived a close shave in the front line

On the right flank Subedar Johal led his platoon in a bayonet charge to almost the crest, but was cruelly cut down by fire from the Italian Bersaglieri. Lieutenant Gibbs switched from the centre to the right flank and drove the supporting platoon onwards towards the Bersaglieri on the heights.

A late-arriving section of Eritreans finds itself shot up by Empire forces

We were now running low on time, and it was time to wrap up. The Indians had lost a 2" mortar and had two platoons down to minimum activations, the Italians had lost all their Askaris and held the ridge line with a couple of shaky platoons of Bersaglieri. I reckon another couple of turns would have had the Italians dislodged.

Fix bayonets!

A great game, that turned from a battle against the Italians into more of a quest between myself and Steve as to who could get their troops to the top first.

Don't shoot, lads! Sergeant Shaw runs down the slope to motivate his boys into action

The Indians are all from my collection and the Italians from that of James. James made the terrain with a very little assistance from myself.

Nearly at the top! A fierce counter attack by Bersaglieri holds up the Brits

Monday, 23 December 2013

I have had these on the painting table, cleaned up and sprayed white for over a year. Over the last couple of weeks I splashed a bit of paint on them and did the bases. These will join the already extensive collection of 1/285 scale Western Desert stuff that does not get played with nearly enough!

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Yesterday evening Phil and I had my first game of Bolt Action in many a month. Phil has got his Americans painted so lacking any ETO troops of my own, I picked a 750pt force from the new Armies of Imperial Japan supplement that was swiftly supplied by Arcane Scenery.

I went for a pretty vanilla Japanese infantry force:

Regular 2nd Lieutenant plus 1 man 60pts

Regular 12 man infantry squad inc LMG 140pts

Regular 12 man infantry squad inc LMG 140pts

Regular 12 man infantry squad inc LMG 140pts

Regular 8 man grenadier squad inc 2 lt mtr 130pts

Regular Suicide Anti-tank team 20pts

Regular Suicide Anti-tank team 20pts

Regular Medium Machine Gun team 50pts

Regular Sniper Team 50pts

Phil used the following American force:

Regular Lieutenant plus 1 man

Regular Forward Air Observer

Regular Medic plus 1 man

Regular 10 man infantry squad inc SMG & BAR

Regular 10 man infantry squad inc SMG & BAR

Regular 9 man infantry squad inc SMG & BAR

Veteran 6 man Ranger squad inc two SMG & BAR

Regular Medium Mortar

Regular Medium Machine Gun

The initial set-up

Regular Sniper Team

I would have nine dice in the pot and Phil would have ten. We set the table up with some good line of site blocking terrain and then rolled up a mission - "Hold Until Relieved" so one of the buildings was moved to the centre of the table to represent the objective.

I won the roll off and chose to be the defender, deploying one infantry squad in the objective and my MMG in the wood to the back of it. My first wave was my CO one infantry squad and the grenadier squad, with the last infantry squad and the anti-tank teams in reserve. My sniper was placed in the other building after Phil had completed his deployment. I elected to put my infantry section and MMG on Ambush due to the new Japanese special rule.

The game kicked off with a pre-game dash by the Rangers.

US Rangers rush the hedge-line.

The initial turn passed rather uneventfully, but the US Air observer called in his first air-strike on the unit holding the objective. Turn two, the Thunderbolts screamed in and straffed the US Mortar team, destroying it and causing all the surrounding units to hit the deck! To add to their woes, the Japanese sniper took out the Ranger NCO with a single shot. Not to be daunted the US air liaison team called in another strike on the defenders.

By this time the Japanese reinforcements were heading towards the objective, but one of the squads was caught in the open and shot up rather badly. The pins were racking up on both sides, and the US attack went through a period of stagnation when a lot of the troops were unable to be motivated to get on with their jobs.

Shameful US Air Liaison team

A Boston screamed out of the clouds and was much more effective than the earlier Thunderbolt. The Japanese defenders dived for cover, but despite their defensive measures, a third of the section in the building were wiped out by the devastating attack. Desultory fire by the sluggish US infantry also accounted for a couple more.

As they were being thinned out by the continued US fire, the Japanese attempted to drive the attackers away at bayonet point. The first Banzai force was farcical, two troops fell to long range SMG fire from the US platoon Sergeant and the outnumbered US squad not only won the initial clash, but killed off all the attackers. A second bayonet charge was much more successful in driving back the American attacks on my left flank, but things were coming to a head.

As the game developed

A US charge on the house was driven off, but with severe casualties so when another US squad came in we were unable to drive them off. As darkness fell, neither side was in clear possession of the objective.

My first game of Bolt Action in many a month, but despite the rustiness with the rules we both had a good time. I hope to get another game in with Phil in the New Year.

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

I was happily ploughing my way through painting my Desert Rats when buddy Quinton turned up at my house with a few boxes of Perry Miniatures Afrikakorps. 'Would I like to have a go at painting some', 'Oh no, I am far too busy!'

Anyway, I've got all the Desert Rats painted so I thought I would give these a go.

Anyway, here are the first ten, still stuck on their temporary, for the purpose of painting, tongue depressors.

They are then washed with Sepia wash and then highlighted as follows:
Uniform: Russian Uniform mixed with increasing quantities of Pale Sand
Helmet etc.: Green Brown mixed with increasing quantities of Pale Sand